Battle of the Beef Pho: Pho Thin vs Gia Truyer Pho in Hanoi

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I love noodles and broth runs through my vein. I will travel around the world chasing after that perfect bowl of noodle soup. After months of researching and watching Youtube videos about Vietnam, I had seriously high expectations. While researching pho, two places kept popping up: Pho Thin and Gia Truyer Pho in Hanoi. Obviously I needed to make the pilgrimage to both of these restaurants to settle the question of which one of these two restaurants had the best pho.

I went to Gia Truyer Pho first because it was about a 10 minute walk from my accommodation. We got to the restaurant at around 5PM and there was only a short line. We were able to find 2 seats right away and got our food within 5 minutes. Vietnam is very efficient. We ordered two bowls of the pho tai nam and one plate of the deep fried dough. This bowl of pho was AMAZING. The broth was savory with hints of sweetness. The broth was clean but the spices gave it a lot of depth. The herbs brought a freshness that kept you going back for more. The noodles were done perfectly. I probably could have eaten at least 2 of those bowls. We have deep fried dough in Chinese food. We normally dip it into congee. I will now admit that we’re doing it wrong. We should be putting it into your noodle soups. The deep fried dough perfectly soaked up the rich broth and when you bite into one, it’s a burst of flavours in your mouth. I will admit that the beef wasn’t really tender and could be considered a little bit tough. But honestly, the beef didn’t really detract from the noodle. It was so good that we forgot it was 40 degrees and we were sweating our face off.

We waited a few days before we went to Pho Thin for dinner. What is special about Pho Thin is that they saute the beef before putting it in the noodle. We wanted to be fair so we also went there hungry. It was a bit further away so we had to take a Grab to get there. When we got to Pho Thin, the restaurant was quite busy but there’s no line and we were able to find a seat right away. Same as last time, we ordered 2 bowls of beef pho and the deep fried dough. We did notice that some bowls of pho had an egg added to it. We wanted a fair comparison so we didn’t order ours with the egg but it is an option. The bowls of noodles were completely covered with herbs. The broth was really clean and the sauteed beef was prominent. What was surprising was that the herbs were not overpowering at all. While the broth and the noodles were good, I did find myself getting bored of the broth and found that it lacked depth and nuance. I found myself adding in the vinegar/garlic/hot sauce to make it a bit more interesting. I really enjoyed my concoction in the end and finished everything, but the original broth was surprisingly easy to get bored of. Maybe it would have been better with the egg?

All in all, I would say that I preferred Gia Truyer Pho. Overall, it provided a more interesting bowl of noodle with more depth. The interplay between the star anise, cinnamon, peppers and who knows what else would be impossible for me to ever replicate that at home. I found that while Pho Thin could probably beat out most any bowls of beef pho in Vancouver, it came off a bit one note when compared to Gia Truyer Pho.